The results will be presented by Tables organized in the ranking manner from the highest to the lowest.
4.1. The most-used discovery strategies by the twelfth-form students (Table 4.1)
- The most commonly-used Discovery strategy for both the twelfth-form students and high achievers is guessing followed by the use of the dictionary.
Table 4.1 Discovery strategies used by the twelfth form pupils
Discovery Strategies No. %
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Guess its meaning from the context
Look up the word in a Vietnamese/English dictionary Use an electronic or online dictionary
Ask my classmates or peers for the meaning Learn words from the mass media
Try to think of an English word that is similar Look up the word in an English dictionary Ask my teacher(s) for the meaning
Look at the parts of speech
Look for the clues in the word itself Learn words from word lists or glossary Ignore it
Learn words through ICQ or chat room communication Interact with native speakers (e.g. the NET)
42 40 39 38 36 32 31 29 27 23 19 15 13 10
84 81.5 79.5 77.5 73.5 64.0 63.0 59.0 54.0 46.0 39.0 31.0 27.0 20.0
(Total number of respondents: 50)
The five highest-ranking discovery strategies used by the twelfth-form students are Guess its meaning from the context (84%), Look up the word in a Vietnamese/English dictionary (81.5%), Use an electronic or online dictionary (79.5%), Ask my classmates or peers for the meaning (77.5%) and Learn words from the mass media (73.5%) respectively. They mostly guess the meanings of new words throughout contexts; however, the use of dictionary (either Vietnamese/English dictionary, English dictionary or electronic dictionary) is definitely usual for them to discover the new ones. The two lowest are Learn words through ICQ or chat room communication (27%) and Interact with native speakers (20%).
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4.2. The most-used discovery strategies by the high achievers
- To consolidate a word in memory, the twelfth-form students and high achievers favour focusing on the spoken and written form of words.
Table 4.2 Discovery strategies used by the high achievers
Discovery Strategies No. %
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Guess its meaning from the context Look for the clues in the word itself Look up the word in an English dictionary Learn words from the mass media
Look at the parts of speech
Look up the word in a Vietnamese/English dictionary Learn words from word lists or glossary
Use an electronic or online dictionary Ask my teacher(s) for the meaning Interact with native speakers
Try to think of an English word that is similar Ask my classmates or peers for the meaning Ignore it
45 37 25 20 17 17 17 15 10 3 0 0 0
90 75 50 40 35 35 35 30 20 5 0 0 0 (Total number of respondents: 50)
Guess its meaning from the context (90%), Look for the clues in the word itself (75%), Look up the word in an English dictionary (50%) and Learn words from the mass media (40%) are the four highest-ranking discovery strategies used by the high achievers. The two lowest are Ask my teacher(s) for the meaning (20%), Interact with native speakers (5%);
while no students Try to think of an English word that is similar, Ask my classmates or peers for the meaning, Ignore it (0%).
Generally, both the twelfth-form students and high achievers prefer Guess its meaning from the context and Look up the word in a dictionary. Based on Stern‘s theory, both the twelfth-form students and high achievers tend to use Cognitive strategies. Whereas the twelfth-form students tend to ask peers or their classmates (77.5%) or their teachers (59%) for the meaning of new words frequently (which means they prefer using Interpersonal strategies or Social strategy in Schmitt‘s theory), the high achievers seldom ask their teachers for the meaning (20%) or even none of them asks their classmates or peers for the meaning of the
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word. Hence, it is obviously seen that the learning stylist of the high achievers is more independent than that of the twelfth-form students (which is an expression of Management and planning strategies used by the high achievers to "decide what commitment to make to language learning set himself reasonable goals decide on an appropriate methodology, select appropriate resources, and monitor progress, evaluate his achievement in the light of previously determined goals and expectations‖). Based on the above data, the social interaction with native speakers in the English study process has not yet focused by both of the two subjects groups (which illustrates that Interpersonal strategy with native speakers in Stern‘s theory is not favoured by both). According to Schmitt‘s theory, guessing meaning from the context and using reference materials are frequently chosen to discover new words by the twelfth-form students and high achievers. In addition, the high achievers never give up with new words, then they keep looking up the new words in any possible way; however, a significant number of the twelfth-form students choose to ignore new words which make them troublesome during the learning process (31%). So for the study greater achievement, the persistence is regarded as one of the personality to the success.
4.3. The most-used consolidation strategies by the twelfth-form students
- The twelfth-form students believe asking teachers is the most useful whereas high achievers believe using mono-bilingual dictionaries is the most useful to discover a new word meaning.
Table 5.1 Consolidation strategies used by the twelfth form pupils
Consolidation Strategies No. %
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Hear it spoken in English
Divide the target word into syllables Study the spelling of the target word Use English words similar in sound Read it in a text
Connect it to other English words on the same topic Put it in a sentence
Study the word list
Keep a vocabulary notebook Relate it to a visual image
Use Vietnamese words similar in sound Study the word over time
35 34 33 32 31 25 23 22 20 20 18 17
70 69 67 63 62 51 45 44 40 40 37 35 (Total number of respondents: 50)
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Hear it spoken in English (70%), Divide the target word into syllables (69%), Study the spelling of the target word (67%), Use English words similar in sound (63%) and Read it in a text (62%), as revealed in Table 5.1, are the five most-used consolidation strategies used by the twelfth-form students; while the lowest ones are Use Vietnamese words similar in sound (37%) and Study the word over time (35%).
4.4. The most-used consolidation strategies by the high achievers
- To enhance retention of a newly-learnt word, all students agree that the most useful Consolidation strategy is keeping a vocabulary notebook.
- That the high achievers would use more grouping strategy to consolidate new words is the only difference.
Table 5.2 Consolidation strategies used by the high achievers
Consolidation Strategies No. %
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Hear it spoken in English
Divide the target word into syllables Study the spelling of the target word Use English words similar in sound Read it in a text
Connect it to other English words on the same topic Put it in a sentence
Study the word list
Keep a vocabulary notebook Relate it to a visual image
Use Vietnamese words similar in sound Study the word over time
36 35 32 5 25 40 20 10 5 26 6 2
75 70 65 10 50 85 40 20 10 55 15 5 (Total number of respondents: 50)
The high achievers quite prefer these consolidation strategies featured Connect it to other English words on the same topic (85%), Hear it spoken in English (75%), Divide the target word into syllables (70%), Study the spelling of the target word (65%), Read it in a text (50%). In contrast, the four lowest methods are seen to be Use English words similar in sound (10%), Keep a vocabulary notebook (10%), Use Vietnamese words similar in sound (15%) and Study the word over time (5%).
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In general, based on the data collected via Table 5.1 and Table 5.2, both the twelfth-form students and high achievers often use the five fore-mentioned consolidation strategies featured Connect it to other English words on the same topic, Hear it spoken in English, Divide the target word into syllables, Study the spelling of the target word and Read it in a text. Based on Stern‘s theory, to consolidate the vocabulary, both of them still choose Cognitive strategy as favoured. As viewed via the two Tables, they focus on the use of the target words and the relations with other words or called grouping (as illustrated in Schmitt‘s theory) put into the same context or in different contexts or texts to further recognise the target word inside each concrete context. In addition, they also significantly pay attention to other skills such as listening, spelling or speaking, reading and phonetics as well. But they do not appreciate the repetition method like rewriting in isolation to consolidate the target words due to the fact that this is considered to be ineffective and older. However, one biggest difference is that the high achievers seldom Use English words similar in sound; on the contrary, this strategy also called using images of the words often be used by the twelfth form students. The twelfth form students almost use all these fore-mentioned methods in order to remember the target words;
whereas, for the high achievers, they choose the most effective strategies for themselves to maximize the good results in the study. Therefore, it infers that the high achievers apply Management and planning strategy more efficient than the twelfth form students.